1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an ink jet printer.
2. Related Art
In the related art, a printing method using an ink jet printer is performed by causing small ink droplets to fly and become attached to a medium such as paper. According to the innovative progress of the ink jet printing technology, printing is performed by an ink jet printer on cloth to which ink is highly absorbable such as silk, polyester, or cotton, or on a plastic medium to which ink is not absorbable.
There has been known a technique in which when printing is performed on the plastic medium by the ink jet printer, the surface of the medium is reformed by irradiating the surface with plasma, and the compatibility between the medium and the ink is enhanced (for example, see JP-A-2009-279796, JP-A-2012-179748, and JP-A-2012-179747).
JP-A-2009-279796 and JP-A-2012-179748 disclose plasma irradiation mechanisms provided to be separate from carriages. The plasma irradiation mechanisms disclosed in JP-A-2009-279796 and JP-A-2012-179748 each include a pair of electrodes that interpose mediums, and perform a surface treatment by causing plasma generated between the electrodes to come into contact with the medium.
JP-A-2012-179747 discloses a plasma irradiation mechanism mounted on a carriage, and discloses a plasma irradiation mechanism disposed in a direction perpendicular to a movement direction of the carriage (for example, see paragraph 0012). The plasma irradiation mechanism disclosed in JP-A-2012-179747 generates plasma between a pair of electrodes (4 and 5) disposed on the same side of a medium, and performs a surface treatment by causing the plasma to come into contact with the medium (for example, see paragraph 0015).
As described above, in JP-A-2009-279796, J-PA-2012-179748, and JP-A-2012-179747, surface treatments are performed by a so-called direct type, in which a discharger is caused to come into direct contact with the medium. The direct type is a method of generating plasma in a state in which a work piece is disposed between the electrodes and performing surface treatment on the work piece.
However, in the surface treatment by the direct type, the medium may be damaged or discolored.